My Unusual Addiction

Hello, my name is Krista [Friends: "Hi, Krista"] and I am suffering from an addiction to indexing.

What is indexing, you ask, and how does one become addicted to it?

It's where you take old records (copied from archived microfiche and such) and type them up so they become available in a searchable electronic format.

Sound boring? I tell you NO - and to prove it to you, I often stay up past midnight doing this.

I can't explain the addiction part, though. Really I can't. I just LOVE poring over the old handwriting, written personally by someone who is long since dead, and usually* in gorgeous elaborate penmanship the likes of which is extinct today (except maybe for professional wedding calligraphers, or something).

*Except for the census-takers. I'm pretty sure the job description for the 1940s census went like this:

"Wanted: Census recorders. Abysmal penmanship preferred. Professional wedding calligraphers need not apply." I recorded very few census forms that were remotely legible.

Anyway, check out this example:

Beautiful, right? I love it. Look at the detail on the capital letters. And this was his draft card. Can you imagine if this man were to write a love letter? *Romantic sigh*

Also, I don't know why, but I love reading over all the personal information that was often included.

Like, on the WWII draft cards, the men would include a physical description of themselves. Somehow I love seeing these farm boys from Indiana describe their blue eyes, medium build, and thinning hair, or even a missing limb under the section asking for any reason they might be exempt from the draft. Many of the men would write in this section that they had a wife and children to support. Reading scores of these cards, I wondered which of these men made it back home again.

I also loved reading over the census records which included each person's occupation and how much money they made. (Yeah, I'm nosy and tactless like that.) I like to guess the circumstances they lived in, based on the household size or the ethnic demographics of the neighborhood. I love recording the families that are like mine - parents the same age, small children at home, and wondering which of them I would hang out with if I'd lived then and there. I get super involved with indexing. I might need an intervention.

A few days ago I got a call from the stake indexing specialist (a church position for our region that specializes in managing the members transferring these records and recruiting help for the project) - because apparently my work is attached to my ward, so they can see how many names I've indexed (I just passed 2000). He was in charge of calling indexers and asking them about their motivation to index, and he could see how much I'd done and wanted to ask why I do it. I laughed and told him about my Addiction and that maybe I need help, but really I do it because I haven't made headway in doing my own family history research (not sure where to start, and I know my sister has done far more work than I could begin with anyhow) so this is my way of contributing to the larger-scale efforts of family history. I just laughed because Travis and I joke about my addiction, and then it turns out the officials are on to me...

Anyway, it's an addiction I'd love to share. Check it out at familysearch.org and join me. I promise I'm not crazy.